All rumours, stories and predictions here? My prediction to start: Nothing in. Nothing out. Little to no rumours. Exciting times.
Duxbury said no signings. What are we going to do when most of our 1at team get injured? Our second string is capable but not to the level of the Premiership bar one or two. It annoys me when on the BBC Football page you hear about other teams making signings but you never see the words Watford sign.... It’s getting beyond a joke now. We cannot continue to operate like this season after season, soo we or later the obvious flaws we all know reside in the team will hurt us majorly and we can book trips to Forest and QPR again. Get one player to improve the two major areas we need and I think the rest of the team is set. Doucoure is obviously leaving, so is that why nothing is happening? Waiting till summer for the cash then spend it on what needs improving. Within sensible spending g limits of course.
We should be grateful to hang onto Doucoure, Del Boy and Pereyra for now. Everton fans could be in for a nail biting day. If Gueye goes to PSG does the snake slither away?
I imagine no signings today. As with the summer failure to upgrade centre back is a really poor performance by the recruitment team. 3 weak transfer windows in a row now. Gracia is a miracle worker.
Currenly sitting in 8th. Reserve squad doing well in the cup and some ready to step up. Do we need to dip in to the vastly overinflated Jan window just because others do?
Probably right. But the top teams can make even the best cb pairing look average. CC is as good as any we can hope to attract. Which of the current relegation/championship cbs would be able to pair with him?
CC is indeed the star in our defence and we are lucky to have him. We apparently baulked at 12m for the chap who went to Stuttgart. Of the other CBs around in my view a player from Burnley/Saints/Brighton pairings would improve us. Lascelles at Newcastle. Some of these would be unaffordable of course. The fact is Marriapa should be a 4th choice. Britos (for all his bright cup performances) will likely be pensioned off. Kabasele has been terrible since his double red cards. Wilmot likely not ready for regular games and may be deemed a midfielder in any case. Prodl is crocked and sitting on a long contract. We are crying out for 1 or even 2 additions.
Can see someone like Campana coming in for a nominal fee then possibly Cahill on loan. No outgoings either.
We haven't had a January window yet under the Ponzos where no new faces have been brought in for the first team squad. I'm pretty sure this will be the first. Wouldn't be shocked if the Chalobah loan rumblings turn into a move until the end of the season.
Pretty sure I read somewhere that since we've been promoted we've signed more players than any other Premier League club.
Navarro, Peñaranda and even Chalobah could all be out on load by the end of the day. Don’t expect any incomings.
As usual, we'll show no ambition by paying vastly over the odds for players who won't improve the first team. ******* sick of it. Again. As we all know, Gino likes to get his business done early.
Where else are we going to put the vague Levanthal tweets and paper thin rumours that will swirl about today?
I'd rather we kept Peneranda (who might be useful) and loaned out Success (who seems fairly useless at the minute)
I can certainly see why we haven’t added a striker given the arrivals that are likely coming in the summer and the fact that we have enough strikers at present that one/two of them still can’t find a place on the bench (Penaranda, Gray). I actually think the need for a striker (certainly in this window) has been overtaken by the need for a wide player - Sema isn’t up to standard, even if he was a cheap gamble worth taking. Penaranda isn’t a wide player and isn’t anywhere near a PL matchday squad. Deulofeu is being wasted as a striker and Hughes simply isn’t a winger. But I have two outlooks on this window - very very few clubs have done any business in terms of incomings. If the value isn’t there, then I’m simply isn’t there. But we have negelected the CB positions for a number of windows now. The much vaunted ‘Pozzo model’ scouts aren’t earning their crust in that respect or are simply being instructed not to bother with defenders. We are doing so well in the league but I’m a firm believer that you strengthen when you’re on a high. There’s a lot of fans believing we can finish 7th but last nights second half shows me that I don’t think we can without recruits. We just don’t have the strength in depth of current quality. A lot of prospects is what we have.
Adam LeventhalVerified account @AdamLeventhal 6m6 minutes ago #WatfordFC transfer update My understanding Doucoure: not leaving now, despite reported interest from Chelsea. Chalobah: loan offers, but unlikely to leave. CB: search ongoing. Quina, Penaranda & Doucoure (late DDay arrivals) reminder that random incoming always possible. The search ongoing comment is interesting.
Not sure if I heard this right, but Sam Vokes is going to Stoke for £10m, and Peter Crouch going the other way to Burnley. Pretty decent deal for Burnley I think. £10m plus Crouch.
I don't think we need a new striker. Current strikers (and others contributing goals) have been good enough to get us to a higher position than most people would have expected. They are different enough from each other so that we should always be able to have a genuine Plan B on the bench. It doesn't always work but then it doesn't always work for Man City either. So no immediate need to solve that problem before summer when we get Cucho and Stuparevic. With Pedro to join later, we need to leave spaces for them to have a genuine crack at breaking through. No point paying £15m for a striker who we would have to play if it means we offer no opportunity for those youngsters. We do need a CB but again I don't think we need to crack that nut now. CC is immense, Kaba has his moments but is generally up to standard and then we have the support cast of Britos/Mapps who are just about able deputies. I think we'll bring someone in during Summer but again need to bear in mind that Wilmot will be looking to break through next season so the plan next year should be CC, Kaba, Wilmot and AN other. Midfield - fine until we sell Doucoure. Then I think we will need to invest because I don't think we have a proper like-for-like replacement for him.
Problem isn't the volume, it's the targeting. Signing 14 Colombians to be freely distributed through the Spanish lower leagues is all well and good, but we've needed a first team ready centre back for at least 4 windows now. We also have terrible strikers, and have had since the golden era of Iggy and Deeney.
